Gratuitous Common Sense

I guess you could call it a theory. I’ve tried to describe it in words before, but I just had to post this, as it’s a perfect illustration of the relativity of Common Sense.

Available at XKCD

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…apparently.

I happened across a post by one Frank Walton on his blog, Atheism Sucks. I found the link to his blog on the Passionate Atheist. The post, entitled “TXAtheist won’t share the burden of proof”, by Frank is an email exchange between himself and an atheist, in which Frank tries to argue that a god exists based on “the impossibility of the contrary”. And tries to get the atheist to make the same kind of argument for his opposing position.

As any of you intelligent beings might recognize, such an argument is a fallacy of ignorance. I was interested in how Frank would reconcile this problem within his argument against the atheist, so I read on.

I ended up responding to his post by leaving a comment, under the username ccannizz11. I don’t want to link to his blog, but feel free to get there through the Passionate Atheist link on his sidebar. The exchange is currently posted in the comments section, however, all my comments must be approved by the owner, so I’ll be tracking the exchange in a separate post and will make it known if Frank doesn’t follow through.

Also, I would encourage you to respond, if you have the time.

UPDATE:
Awww, maaan, Frank quitted.

I’m going to post his final comments here, so everyone may witness the idiocy without going to his blog. My responses to his previous arguments are in bold, while his responses are blockquoted, and I have added a few comments in italics. The rest of the exchange is available on his blog. Not riveting stuff, but enjoy…
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I was being bored, using my Firefox plugin, StumbleUpon, when I came across an article by Amy Dickinson in the January 6, 2007 edition of the Chicago Tribune. Amy Dickinson is an advice columnist who offered up what is, quite possibly, the world’s worst sex advice ever… ever.

For fun and to try to mix this up a little, you two might develop a verbal or visual cue that is more subtle than simply asking for sex. For instance, when one of you mentions Vice President Richard Cheney, that’s your code.

If you didn’t know any better, you might think she was trying to sabotage their marriage in an astronaut-like attempt to steal the husband. I, personally, cannot think of a more inappropriate, libido-stifling cue than what Amy has offered here. Whatever the case, you can be sure she wasn’t trying to help.

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This is a public service announcement, brought to you by Gratuitous Common Sense. I am giving you this bible warning, and unlike the things I am warning you about, I will openly admit that it is aimed at children, because they are the most vulnerable.

This is your bible warning…

Please Click to read the fine print. This Bible Warning is imperative.

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I found a link to this book over on Disgusted Beyond Belief. I took some time perusing the chapters and have decided to add it to my long list of books to read.

Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do is based on one single idea: Consenting adults should not be put in jail unless they physically harm the person or property of a nonconsenting other.

I’ve long considered myself part of the legalize (and track, and regulate, and tax) marijuana crowd, but I could never fully parse the reasons why I was in favor of it for marijuana but against it for other “more harmful” drugs at the same time. I always knew there was a logical disconnect there, and have never taken the time to rectify it. Hopefully, Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do will help with part of that. Perhaps I’m starting with the wrong premise.

Anyway, that’s just one of the issues the book addresses, and this is more of a personal reminder to read it than a commentary on the book or its subjects.

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Religion is based primarily and mainly upon fear. The fear of the unknown and the fear of ambiguity are at the very foundation of religion, especially monotheism. Built on top of that is the fear of death, the fear of defeat, the fear of “evil”, the fear of change, and the fear of anything different.

I will explain these in detail, but first, let’s briefly address what some others might say is at the foundation of religion - Love, Compassion, and Forgiveness or some closely related and/or direct subset of these categories. Some might say “truth”, but that can’t really be the foundation if that’s what they are all searching for, or in some cases think they have found or been shown by a god.

In short, things like love, compassion, or forgiveness may be values that are practiced by some religious people, but the fact that others can follow these religions without incorporating such values shows that, while deeply ingrained for some, they are certainly not the foundation on which the religion was built. The foundation is something that all adherents share, or have in common, regardless of their particular sect or which deity they choose to follow.

Some might point out that there are those who might express their individuality through their religion. In other words, they generally do not care if others live by their beliefs and values. Their religion is an individual choice and is important to only themselves. These people are building on a different foundation than that of organized religion. And I am not referring to these people when I speak in general about whatever religion they may identify closely with.

This is a commentary on organized religion itself and the dogma it preaches as worthy of submission, worship, and belief by all humans. The foundation, in some semblance, incorporates the following…

The Fear of Death
This is a particularly odd fear, considering what most believers think will happen to them after they die. It’s a very rosy picture, and more often than not, better than the “hell” that is their current material life. Ask any theist and odds are they will tell that they are - eventually - going to heaven after they die, or they will tell you that they are coming back in the next life as a more fortunate and more enlightened being, depending on which kind of theist you ask.

So why is there a fear of death? Is it just human nature to not want to die? It’s an interesting question when posed to a theist. I would contend that it is human nature to avoid death, but the picture of the afterlife that most theists have in mind for themselves serves to combat that most basic of human instincts. But they still fear death. Why?
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I’ve seen plenty of posts about the relatively new Conservapedia , and felt little reason to comment on it myself. However, with my discovery of the new GodTube, I am convinced that the Christian fundamentalists behind these sites are quickly becoming their own worst enemy.

I present exhibit A…

Nevermind that the banana he is using in his divine demonstration is a direct result of human engineering and 7000 years of cultivation for smaller seeds and a tastier banana, in much the same way we have cultivated seedless grapes and watermelons. The comments on the video’s page tell much of the story.

Like I said, their own worst enemy.

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I am now a proud part of The Atheist Blogroll. You can see the 25 most recently updated blogs in the rolling blogroll on the right side of this page. The full blogroll is now over 200 blogs, and growing.

It’s nice to see a growing community of freethinkers willing to speak out for freedom from religion.

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A wonderful demonstration of the logic of monotheism (only the names have been changed to protect the guilty)…

I hope it’s not too subtle.

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If you click on this link…

The God Simulator

…you, too, can know what it’s like to be an all-loving all-powerful all-knowing being. What choices would you make? Can you do a better job than the “real” God? I bet you can, if you use a little common sense.

Now, without a doubt, someone will try this and think/say something like…

‘We are merely human beings, far be it from us to try to understand God’s reasons.’

Or, maybe that someone will go with the more simplistic and mystical explanation…

‘The lord works in mysterious ways…’

But, to that, I say you don’t have to understand God’s reasons. In fact, the very possibility of a simple/ignorant/sinful - and therefore humble - human like yourself being able to use common sense to create a more perfect universe than God, when given the choices that he had available to him, speaks to the absurdity of the Christian story of creation and all of existence. The story becomes even more absurd if you’re one of those people that think Adam and Eve were the only humans who had free will.

But I don’t want to be accused of setting up strawman arguments, so let’s probe some other possibilities.

How else is it possible that someone could use The God Simulator, and not come to the conclusion that the god of the bible, if true, would have to make some seriously shady choices to get things to happen the way the story (i.e. God) says they did?

One possibility is that they made all the same choices as God. However unlikely it may be, I do suppose it’s possible. But then again, that person would have to be lacking some serious sense. The meaning of “benevolent”, and “omniscient” for that matter, would have to be completely foreign to them. And even then, they’d still have to screw up pretty badly.

Another possibility is that they are just inherently evil. It is possible that someone would make the same choices as God supposedly did, if they were the type that enjoyed toying with minions over whom they have unlimited control and power. This would be the person who seeks power for power’s sake, and instead of using it to benefit many, uses it to benefit himself.

I suppose there is always the circular reasoning trump-card similar to one that many our parents were so fond of… ‘because God said so’. There is no response to that, because any response immediately traps you in an endless exercise in futility. At that point it’s just having faith because someone said to have faith, without any objective criteria for choosing who to believe.

Anyway, I certainly don’t claim this to be an exhaustive post on The God Simulator and it’s implications. I just found it to be an amusing, yet particularly poignant exercise in common sense. So if I’ve left off something sensible, feel free to leave a comment and let me know. Be careful, I could be doing this on purpose, but everything happens for a reason, right?

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